SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

ABC's Happy Endings is one of the biggest cult favorite sitcoms of the last decade, at least in terms of shows that were canceled far too soon. The zippy single-camera sitcom can best be described as "a faster, weirder version of Friends," and for three seasons it was a beloved factory of fast paced one liners and quotable lines, with cleverness on par with 30 Rock or The Simpsons. However, the show was canceled due to low ratings in 2013. It has lived on as a cult classic on Hulu since then, even getting namedropped in the sitcom-obsessed Marvel miniseries Wandavision a few months ago. Now, the show has the opportunity to reach an even bigger audience as it started streaming on Netflix this month.

While Hulu has expanded and quickly developed a following, there's no denying that Netflix is still the supreme streamer, and a show moved to Netflix has been proven to be able to catapult it to new heights, such as when Community bursted in popularity last year after it began streaming on Netflix, despite being available on Hulu for years. Considering Netflix's algorithm success, it shouldn't be hard for people who watched shows like Community, New Girl or Schitt's Creek - all popular Netflix shows that share DNA with Happy Endings - to discover this gem of a sitcom. Here's to hoping it's the next sitcom to explode in popularity.

Actress Arlene Golonka, who starred as Millie Swanson on Mayberry R.F.D., has died. She died on May 31 in her sleep at a memory care facility in West Hollywood, California, after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. Ms. Golonka was 85.

Golonka's early drama guest appearances included The United States Steel Hour, Naked City (2 episodes), The Defenders, The Doctors (5 episodes), The Doctors and the Nurses (3 episodes), The Big Valley (2 episodes) and I Spy.

Some of her early sitcom guest appearances included Car 54, Where Are You?, The Flying Nun, Accidental Family and Get Smart. She played Millie Hutchins in the eighth and final season of The Andy Griffith Show episodes "Howard's Main Event" and "Howard and Millie." She works at the bakery and becomes engaged to Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) before they decide to break the engagement.

Her character was named Millie Swanson on The Andy Griffith Show spinoff series Mayberry R.F.D., which premiered on September 23, 1968. The 1968-1971 CBS sitcom aired for 3 seasons and 78 episodes. Millie Swanson was the love interest of Sam Jones (Ken Berry). The cast included Frances Bavier (1968-1970), George Lindsey, Jack Dodson, Paul Hartman, Buddy Foster and Alice Ghostley (1970-1971).

She starred as Stella Sweetzer in the second season of the short-lived 1978-1979 NBC sitcom Joe & Valerie. Stella Sweetzer was the mother of Valerie Sweetzer (Char Fontane). The season two cast included Paul Regina, Lloyd Alan, David Elliott, Donna Ponterotto, Robert Costanzo and Jack Riley.

Golonka appeared as Lieutenant Edwina “Eddie” Ferguson, an attractive but clumsy nurse, in the M*A*S*H episode "Edwina." She played Tina, an escort of one of Archie's old pals (Larry Storch), in the All in the Family episode "Oh Say Can You See." Some of her other sitcom guest appearances included That Girl (3 episodes), Love, American Style (3 episodes), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (2 episodes), The Girl with Something Extra, Maude (2 episodes), The Cop and the Kid (2 episodes), Alice, Carter Country, One Day at a Time, Taxi, The Love Boat (2 episodes), Gimme a Break!, Benson, Valerie, We Got It Made, Growing Pains (2 episodes), 1st & Ten (3 episodes) and Drexell's Class. Her final credit was a 2005 episode of The King of Queens.

Some of her drama guest appearances included Sarge, The Rookies, The F.B.I., Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1972), The Delphi Bureau, Young Dr. Kildare, Cannon, Faraday and Company, The Manhunter, Police Woman, Barnaby Jones (2 episodes), The Streets of San Francisco (2 episodes), The Rockford Files, Police Story, Trapper John, M.D., Fantasy Island (3 episodes), Simon & Simon, Murder, She Wrote (2 episodes), In the Heat of the Night and Matlock (2 episodes).

Her voice credits included Speed Buggy, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Scooby's Laff-A Lympics and The New Yogi Bear Show.

Some of her film credits included Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965), Penelope (1966), The Busy Body (1967), Welcome to Hard Times (1967), Hang 'Em High (1968), Airport '77 (1977), The In-Laws (1979), Love at First Bite (1979), The Last Married Couple in America (1980), My Tutor (1983), The End of Innocence (1990) and A Family Affair (2001).

Survivors include her sister, Zorine; nieces Stephanie, Susan, Amy, Debra, Lisa, Karen and Crissy; and nephews David and Michael.

Ms. Golonka was a talented, cute and bubbly actress. If you enjoy The Andy Griffith Show, the first season of Mayberry R.F.D. is worth checking out on DVD or digitally. It has some of the same Mayberry charm. Hopefully they will release the other two seasons on DVD or put them on a streaming service at some point. We thank her for the laughs and entertainment she brought us. She will be deeply missed.

Share your memories on our Mayberry R.F.D. message board. View photos in our galleries.

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

This weekend is Halloween, and whether you're spending the weekend participating in Halloween festivities or not, you can make the weekend a little more festive with these highlight sitcom Halloween episodes.

The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror V (Available on Disney+)
Any Treehouse of Horror installment from the Simpsons' first 10 seasons is a genuine candidate for this list, but the very best is the entry from the show's 6th season, most notable for the show's classic Shining parody. It perfectly balances creepy and funny, and is still, in my mind, the gold standard of a horror episode of a sitcom, animated or not.

Bob's Burgers - Fort Night (Available on Hulu)
Bob's Burgers is another series that has made Halloween a special time of year, and nearly all of its Halloween episodes are delightful. But the very best Halloween episode is probably Season 4's Fort Night, which introduces the character of Millie. Similar to the Simpsons episode listed, Fort Night is actually genuinely creepy, as the childrens' fate is left up to the wildly unstable Millie character. It's also just a great time seeing all of the Belcher kids together in one place.

Parks and Recreation - Halloween Surprise (Available on Hulu and Peacock)
This Parks and Rec episode isn't quite like your typical Halloween episodes, as it centers around Ben proposing to Leslie, but it's nevertheless a sweet and surprising episode that makes great use of the holiday. It's rare to call a Halloween episode "sweet", but this episode definitely gets that honor. And it's no surprise that Parks and Rec would take the darkest holiday of the year and make it heartwarming.

Happy Endings - Spooky Endings (Available on Hulu)
Maybe the all-out funniest episode of the list, Happy Endings' sole Halloween episode is a hysterical laugh riot from start to finish. There is pretty much a joke every other second in this episode, which has a simple premise (the gang goes to a costume party while Jane and Brad house sit in the suburbs) but fills that premise with so many jokes that you'll find yourself endlessly laughing for the entire 22 minutes.

Boy Meets World - And Then There Was Shawn (Available on Disney+)
Technically this isn't a Halloween episode, but it's a horror movie send up that fits in perfectly with the season, as the show pokes fun at slasher films. It's a really funny episode and a fairly early example of a live action sitcom experimenting with its genre and form. You don't typically expect it from TGIF sitcoms, but Boy Meets World did a great job with it.

Community - Epidemiology (Available on Netflix and Hulu)
Community spoofed zombie films with its second season Halloween episode, and if you can get past the fact that parts of this episode is about the school being quarantined due to the outbreak of a "zombie" virus (yes, it hits a little close to home, minus the zombie part), this is an extremely funny parody of horror movies that's one of Community's most imaginative and fun concept episodes.

CBS All Access, ViacomCBS' digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, announced the fourth season renewal for its original, half-hour comedy series No Activity. In a departure from previous seasons, the fourth season will feature all the fan favorite No Activity. characters in animated form. This season will find Special Agent Nick Cullen (Patrick Brammall) realizing his dream of joining the FBI, but he will soon discover that being an FBI agent isn’t that special after all. After being assigned to a seemingly dull observation detail, he finds a potential career case in the form of an emerging cult. A large scale operation soon takes aim at the cult but it's unclear which side will break first. Despite the promotion, Cullen's path continues to cross with former partner Judd Toldbeck's (Tim Meadows), who adjusts to life with a new partner of his own.

No Activity's third season found demoted detectives Cullen and Tolbeck back in uniform with a revolving door of quirky new partners and even quirkier criminals, while robots - and Dylan McDermott - tried to take over Janice and Fatima's jobs in dispatch. Season three starred Brammall, Meadows and a stellar guest cast, including Beth Behrs, Joe Keery, Keegan-Michael Key, Sunita Mani, Jason Mantzoukas, Dylan McDermott, Paula Pell, Amy Schumer, Amy Sedaris and J.K. Simmons. No Activity is produced by CBS Studios in association with Funny Or Die, Jungle, and Gary Sanchez Productions, and is based on the Stan original series produced by Jungle. The series is co-developed and executive produced by Brammall and Trent O'Donnell, alongside executive producers Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Joe Farrell, Mike Farah, Joe Hardesty and Jason Burrows. Nina Pedrad, Steve Toltz, and Becca Kinskey serve as co-executive producers. As in previous seasons, O'Donnell will direct all episodes. Flight School Studio serves as the animation studio for the upcoming season.

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

This week, two more sitcoms joined the growing trend of remote reunion episodes, 30 Rock and Happy Endings. 30 Rock's remote reunion special aired last Thursday on NBC, while the Happy Endings remote reunion episode streamed on YouTube this past Monday. It was great seeing the casts and hearing the joke rhythms of these two cult classic comedies again, both of which had a non-stop joke telling approach to comedy writing that I really loved, and which have allowed both of them to go onto become cult classics via streaming services. That said, I had very different opinions of both specials, despite being a big fan of both shows.

The 30 Rock reunion special doubled as a promotional vehicle for NBC's fall schedule as well as Peacock, and it made the entire special seem a little forced. It was nice to see the 30 Rock cast again, catch up to where they are in 2020, and hear some of the show's classic joke rhythms. The special felt true to the characters, and it was especially fun watching Jane Krakowski's Jenna deal with the effects of "cancel culture." And there were some other good gags in the special, such as Jack having the "iPhone 40" and the meta joke about Peacock not securing the rights to Friends (which felt like a very classic "30 Rock dunking on NBC" joke.) And yet, the fact that the special had to be interrupted every few minutes to watch the characters shamelessly plug NBCUniversal Networks' line-up was disappointing, even if that's what the special was intended for. It was a little odd to see the show just blatantly promoting NBC when it spent so much of its run making fun of it and using meta, tongue-in-cheek humor to get out of doing product placement (the classic gag where Liz looks into the camera and says "Can we have our money now?" was one of the show's funniest moments). Still, it was enjoyable enough and I did like seeing all of the characters again, so while I was a bit letdown, it wasn't a complete waste of time.

But it couldn't compare to the Happy Endings reunion episode, which had a much lower production budget (it was literally just the cast on Zoom, similar to the Parks & Recreation episode from earlier in the pandemic) but otherwise was written and structured like a regular episode of Happy Endings. And the show has not missed a beat in terms of joke crafting - the jokes came fast and furious, just as they did during the show's original run. The running joke of Dave accidentally opening a restaurant called "Covid-19" felt extremely classic Happy Endings, as did the idea of airheaded Alex being a virus denier, or Penny and Max marrying each other on Zoom because they couldn't find anyone else. It was simple, but it managed to completely capture everything that made the show so great, and further convinced me that a Happy Endings reboot would be one of the only shows that I think could successfully be rebooted and not miss a step from its original run. This special proved you could literally just get the cast onto video chat and it would still be comedy gold. I'm just saying, if any streaming service or network wants to greenlight a show that's just the Happy Endings cast talking in character over video chat for 10 episodes a season...I'd watch. All in all, this special really reminded me just how great Happy Endings was, and if you still haven't seen it, I really recommend checking out all 56 episodes on Hulu as soon as possible.

Netflix has renewed southern drama Sweet Magnolias for a second season! The first season dropped in May with 10 episodes. Life in the small, Southern town of Serenity isn't exactly serene for three best friends as together they navigate relationships, family and careers. Centered on three South Carolina women, best friends since high school, as they shepherd each other through the complexities of romance, career, and family. The series stars JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Maddie Townsend, Brooke Elliott as Dana Sue Sullivan, Heather Headley as Helen Decatur, Justin Bruening as Cal Maddox, Chris Klein as Bill Townsend, Carson Rowland as Tyler Townsend, Logan Allen as Kyle Townsend, Anneliese Judge as Annie Sullivan and special guest star Jamie Lynn Spears as Noreen Fitzgibbons.

The cast of Happy Endings reunited for a special event and a live Q&A, benefiting Color of Change and World Central Kitchen yesterday! The ABC comedy aired from 2011-2013 for three seasons and 57 episodes. Six friends. One zoom call. What else do you need? Sony Pictures Television has partnered with the original cast and executive producers of Happy Endings for a special charity event and live Q&A to raise money and awareness for Color of Change and José Andrés' World Central Kitchen supporting Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 relief efforts. Cast members Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans, Jr., Casey Wilson and a special surprise guest reunited and performed new scripted material from the writers of Happy Endings entitled, "And The Pandemmy Goes To…" Following the event there was a special live fan Q&A with the cast. Watch the episode first:



And then watch the special Q&A! Both videos are a must watch for Happy Endings fans!

For Coach Ben Hopkins, winning is everything. Too bad he's a total loser. Hoops, an animated comedy starring Jake Johnson, premieres August 21 only on Netflix. Hoops centers around a hot-headed, foul-mouthed high school basketball coach who thinks turning around his God-awful team will take him to the "big leagues." Cast: Jake Johnson (Stumptown, New Girl, BoJack Horseman, Spider Man: Into the Spider-verse) will voice the character of Coach Ben Hopkins. Netflix will premiere 10 episodes. More info still to come, but save the date! 

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

The past few weeks have brought news that Friends and The Office will be leaving Netflix within the next few years. This is a big deal for many people, as Friends and The Office are reportedly the two most-streamed sitcoms in our current era. But while both of these shows deserve titles as classics in their respective decades, there's no reason your search for great comedy needs to end there. If you're someone who has spent all of your time at Dunder Mifflin or at Central Perk, consider giving these similar comedies a try:

Parks and Recreation (streaming on Netflix): Parks and Recreation is another popular mockumentary comedy similar to The Office - in fact, helmed by longtime Office writer Michael Schur and co-created by Office exec Greg Daniels, the series is in some ways a little sister to the show. It's a warm, sunny series about the workers of the Pawnee parks department that, like The Office, puts big stock in its characters and cares deeply about them under its silly exterior.

30 Rock (streaming on Hulu): 30 Rock and The Office were timeslot partners for much of each of their lives, and it makes sense why: both are fast-paced, smart and well-crafted comedies that demonstrate the single-camera, 21st century sitcom at its finest. 30 Rock, like The Office, follows a workplace that seems too ridiculous to be true much of the time. If you like the fly-on-your-seats humor of The Office, you'll love 30 Rock.

New Girl (streaming on Netflix): New Girl follows the relationship/friendship model of Friends very closely - there are definitely parallels between Jess/Nick and Ross/Rachel - and is set up, in many ways, like Friends, following a group of young professionals in the big city (except this big city is LA, not New York). However, New Girl has the humor stylings more in line with The Office or 30 Rock - the characters are all incredibly funny and silly people, who make you laugh, cringe, and cry. The humor is also fast-paced and bizarre in a way similar to The Office, so if you're looking for a show that melds the best of the two worlds, New Girl is a great choice.

Happy Endings (streaming on Hulu): You've probably heard of the other shows on this list, but you may not have heard of Happy Endings. Although the series was cut short after three seasons, its legacy has lived on via internet memes by its most ardent supporters. In many ways, Happy Endings can be thought of as a millennial Friends. The set up is very similar - six friends living near each other in Chicago - but the humor is over-the-top, ridiculous and cutting, in a way that feels very appropriate for our current era. If you love Friends but want something that's a bit more reflective of our times, check out Happy Endings.

Better Off Ted (streaming on Hulu): Another short-lived series (cut down after just 2 seasons), this show is like an even more satirical version of The Office that takes a real look at how the workplace runs. I won't give too much away, but it's the sort of comedy where you can't believe what's happening much of the time, much like the cringiest episodes of The Office. If you like that side of the show, you'll love Better Off Ted.

Winner of a coveted Peabody and a Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, Mad About You aired its final episode in May 1999. Now, 20 years later, Spectrum Originals reunites stars Paul Reiser and Emmy(R) Award winner Helen Hunt for a new limited series, debuting for the Holidays in late 2019. To set the stage for this comedic return, Spectrum will make all 164 episodes of the original series available free on-demand, exclusively for Spectrum subscribers beginning August 1. Over seven seasons of the beloved original series, Reiser and Hunt played Paul and Jamie Buchman, a married couple in New York City who mine the gentle humor in domesticity and life's everyday situations. For its limited-series return, Mad About You will explore the fertile ground of modern marriage through the eyes of the Buchmans as empty-nesters. Spectrum Originals is a premier destination for premium original series available exclusively to Spectrum video subscribers on-demand and ad-free. This free service launched with the Sony and Bruckheimer-produced drama L.A.'s Finest, starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba.

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This week, there has been a huge uproar over a decisions that Fox has made regarding their sitcoms, that even wades into the political divide seen in the country. That isn't all that people have been talking about with renewals and cancellations, though, and we've got that and a lot more (and there is actually even more that we couldn't fit in here this week). Let's get going!

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It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

It's pretty fair, at this point, to say that this was a bust year for new sitcoms. After NBC's AP Bio has gotten off to a slow start both commercially and critically, it becomes the latest in a long line of disappointing network comedies. Is this the end for network comedies? Have streaming and cable finally overtaken the network sitcom we all know and love? Well...maybe not. Every time there's an off year for sitcoms, it seems that armies of people become ready to bury the network sitcom, and yet it always comes back eventually. Still, it'd be nice to have a solid new slate of sitcoms next year. Here are some things I'd like to see from upcoming network sitcoms.

Interesting concepts. The best comedy on network TV right now is The Good Place, and while that show works largely because of its excellent cast and top-notch writing, its truly unique concept certainly helps. The show feels absolutely nothing like anything else on TV, and it's managed to still be a critical and commercial success. I would love to see more of The Good Place's innovation on network television. After all, its success proves that show can be as original and mind-blowing as The Good Place and still pull in a large enough audience to be an easy renewal every year. So what's network TV's excuse?

Ensemble comedies. Over the past few years, the ensemble comedy has sort of fallen by the wayside. The one major exception is NBC's Superstore, another of the few critical and commercially successful comedies left on broadcast TV. A few years ago, ensemble series were all the rage, from Community to The Office to Happy Endings to Cougar Town. I'd love to see them make a comeback. A good ensemble comedy can feel like hanging out with a cherished group of friends week after week.

High quality multi-camera sitcoms. The multi-camera sitcom has experienced a small creative resurgence with shows like The Carmichael Show (rest in peace...), One Day at a Time and Mom, but it still feels like networks aren't really giving them much effort. Even CBS, long the staple of the multi-camera sitcom, is focusing its attention more on its single-cams as of late than its multi-cams. But when done right, a multi-camera sitcom can be something special, broad enough to appeal to a wide audience but specific enough to really appeal to audience its crafted for. It would be great to see a show like One Day at a Time on broadcast television. Perhaps the Roseanne remake will do the trick. Which leads me to...

Less remakes. C'mon, networks - I get that it's tempting, but how long can this remake trend really last? After all, even Will & Grace has come down quite a bit since its big start. Remakes aren't sustainable, but new ideas and new talent is.

Nickelodeon announced it has greenlit a new live-action series, Cousins for Life (20 episodes), from veteran creators and executive producers Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert (Austin & Ally, All That). The new buddy comedy centers on 12-year-old cousins Stuart (Dallas Young) and Ivy (Scarlet Spencer), best friends who come from very different backgrounds, and learn to navigate life under one roof with their families. Cousins For Life begins production in Los Angeles this summer, and the series is scheduled to air later this year.

After Stuart's mom is deployed overseas, his fun-loving dad Clark (Ishmel Sahid) decides to move the family to Portland to live with his uptight brother Lewis (Ron G.) and his family, which includes Stuart's confident, socially active cousin Ivy and her younger, overly-curious brother Leaf (Micah Abbey). Now living in a brand new city, Stuart embarks on a variety of endeavors with Ivy that lead to hilarious adventures. Although the cousins do not always see eye-to-eye, Ivy and Stuart learn they are better together, and when they team up, they are unstoppable.

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

With revival fever sweeping the networks, I figured I'd take this week's column to think about what shows I think could use a revival. Honestly, for the most part I don't think that most shows really need a revival, but there are certain sitcoms that I've been yearning for more, either because they were taken off the air too soon or just because I think they could work in today's TV climate. A few of those shows are:

Happy Endings - If there's one show I would genuinely love to see come back, it's this one. This was such a smart, rapid-fire and genuinely funny show with an immensely talented cast that deserved more than the three seasons it got on ABC. Its run as it is now is nearly perfect, and it's possible additional seasons would ruin that perfect track record (I'm looking at you, Arrested Development Season 4) but honestly? I don't care. If there's a chance for anything as non-stop hilarious as the first three seasons, I'm willing to take that risk.

Cheers - Cheers is one show whose premise could essentially be recycled over and over again - a bunch of people hang out at a bar. While it's pretty unlikely that the original cast could be reunited in any form, I think a Cheers: The Next Generation or something could actually work. What does the bar look like in the 2010s? What kind of people frequent it? Most revivals have featured the same cast members, but arguably the best one - One Day at a Time - has rebooted the concept entirely. I think this could really work with Cheers.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - It's pretty unlikely that Will Smith would ever consider this, but it'd be interesting to see a Fresh Prince where Will becomes something similar to what he is in real life, and takes on a streetwise kid the way his Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivan did when he was just starting. Essentially, it could be like Fuller House done right. (Unfortunately, it'd have to be without James Avery, who passed away a few years ago.)

Bewitched - A modern Bewitched could be genuinely kind of interesting, which is probably why there was a movie done in a similar vein in the 2000s. The movie, though, never took its concept seriously enough. Bewitched was, at times, a somewhat sly commentary on gender roles in the 1960s, so I'd be curious to see what it could do with modern topics like feminism and gender equality - of course, dressed up in a sparkly magic spell.

All in all, I'd rather see networks come up with original content rather than sputtering out endless remakes. But if they had to remake some of these shows, I wouldn't complain, as long as they were done right.

Did she or didn't she? Multi-talented Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth has been cast as Lavinia Peck-Foster in the second season of NBC's irreverent comedy series Trial & Error. Who is Lavinia Peck-Foster? The first lady of East Peck is a larger-than-life grand dame - at least in her own mind. She is an eccentric heiress known for her flamboyant outfits, large hats and hairless cat, Fluffy, who has not left the confines of Peck Gardens in ages. Lavinia calls on Josh Segal and Associates - the team that got off Owl Murderer Larry Henderson - to defend her after she was found with her husband, Edgar, stuffed into a suitcase in the back of her car. The premiere for the second season of Trial & Error will be announced at a later date, with 10 episodes ordered. The series stars John Lithgow, Nicholas D'Agosto, Sherri Shepherd, Jayma Mays, Steven Boyer and Krysta Rodriguez.

BET Networks and Viacom will rename Centric cable network to BET Her beginning on September 25, 2017. Just a bit of history, Centric was previously called BET on Jazz, then renamed to BET Jazz, then BET J, before turning into Centric in 2009. Now come this fall, Centric turns into BET Her. Targeting African American Women 25-54, BET Her takes its rightful place within the BET family as it more closely aligns with the flagship brand. BET Her will invite viewers on a journey through music, culture, travel and lifestyle - everything that is important to "Her" being. The only network dedicated to African American women 24 hours a day. Currently Centric airs Family Matters, The Soul Man, Eve, Half & Half, and In the House. No word on any programming updates just yet.

Damon Wayans Jr (New Girl, Happy Endings, Big Hero 6), along with his partner, Kris Jones, is featured on the new Apple/Propagate television series, Planet of the Apps, to introduce their new app Special Guest, that allows anyone, anywhere to hire live entertainment on demand. Special Guest takes away the problem for hundreds of thousands of live entertainers struggling to secure work due to the difficult process of securing gigs. The app leverages mobile to remove friction from the traditional talent booking process enabling anyone, anywhere to hire live entertainment on demand, by providing the technology for anyone to seamlessly host live entertainment in their home, backyard or similar non-traditional venues with the push of a button.

Planet of the Apps – POTA is a new weekly Propagate series about apps and their creators, featuring Advisors Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am, and Gary Vaynerchuck. The 10-episode series debuted on June 6, with new episodes premiering exclusively on Apple Music every Tuesday. Each episode features a select number of app developers, who pitch their ideas to the Advisors who then vote as to whether or not the apps can move into the next round for mentorship and funding.

Vulture.com, New York Magazine's culture and entertainment site, announced the initial lineup for the 2016 Vulture Festival, a series of high-profile events celebrating the best of today's television, music, film, and more. The Festival will take place May 21-22 primarily at Milk Studios, with select events at other venues, in New York City. Additional events will be announced soon. Among the highlights of the two-day live showcase, curated by Vulture's editors, are: A Happy Endings reunion sponsored by Hulu with creator David Caspe, showrunner Jonathan Groff, and castmembers Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Casey Wilson, Adam Pally, and Damon Wayans Jr., hosted by Vulture editor Jesse David Fox. Shonda Rhimes, executive producer of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and The Catch, in conversation with Vulture Hollywood editor Stacey Wilson Hunt, sponsored by OUTFRONT Media. Then, an exclusive interview with HBO's The Sopranos creator David Chase and New York and Vulture television critic Matt Zoller Seitz. Star Krysten Ritter and series creator/showrunner Melissa Rosenberg of Marvel's Jessica Jones, which is currently streaming on Netflix, in conversation with Vulture editor Abraham Riesman. This session is sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment. Admission will be offered free to the public.

A live table read with the cast and guest cast of Hulu's Difficult People, followed by a panel discussion with Amy Poehler, Billy Eichner, Julie Klausner, James Urbaniak, Nathan Lane, Cole Escola, Shakina Nayfack, Andrea Martin, Megan Hilty, Scott King, and John Early led by Vulture editor E. Alex Jung. TV Land's Younger castmembers Sutton Foster, Miriam Shor, Debi Mazar, Nico Tortorella, and Dan Amboyer go head-to-head with FX's You're the Worst castmembers Stephen Falk, Aya Cash, Chris Geere, Kether Donohue, and Desmin Borges in a pop-culture trivia game show, hosted by actor/comedian Brett Gelman (Another Period, Love). Comedy night featuring Sarah Silverman and Friends at BAM. A jam session with Fred Armisen and Sharon Van Etten. Live tapings in the Casper Podcast Lounge including Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson's "Two Dope Queens;" Chris Gethard's "Beautiful/Anonymous;" "Reply All" hosted by Alex Goldman and featuring guest Paul Scheer; Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas in "How Did This Get Made?;" NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour" host Linda Holmes and panelists Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon. Lifetime's UnREAL co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, castmembers Shiri Appleby, Constance Zimmer, B.J. Britt, Craig Bierko, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Josh Kelly, and executive producer Carol Barbee in conversation with Vulture editor Gazelle Emami.

AMC's Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould and stars Bob Odenkirk, Michael McKean, and Rhea Seehorn in conversation with New York television critic Matt Zoller Seitz. An interview with castmembers of USA's Mr. Robot, including Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, and Grace Gummer. In conversation with CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star and co-creator Rachel Bloom and co-creator/executive producer Aline Brosh McKenna, along with the show's executive music producer, Adam Schlesinger, and Vulture Hollywood editor Stacey Wilson Hunt. An exclusive look at TNT's new drama series Animal Kingdom, and a conversation with its executive producers John Wells and Jonathan Lisco. An exclusive early viewing of Disney's Alice Through the Looking Glass, followed by a discussion with the film's costume designer, Colleen Atwood, led by New York and Vulture senior editor Kyle Buchanan. This session is sponsored by Screenvision Media. Actors behind some of your favorite animated voices read classic movie scenes in their animated voices including John Roberts (Bob's Burgers), Larry Murphy (Bob's Burgers), Aisha Tyler (Archer), Carlos Alazraqui (Bordertown, Inside Out, Happy Feet), Lucky Yates (Archer), Elizabeth "EG" Daily (Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls), Maurice LaMarche (Pinky and the Brain, Futurama, Kung Fu Panda, The Powerpuff Girls, Zootopia, Rick and Morty), and Alex Borstein (Family Guy), moderated by Vulture editor Nate Jones. Vulture Festival and Governors Ball present Gary Clark Jr. and Albert Hammond Jr. in concert at Webster Hall. An exclusive interview with Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, and New York writer-at-large Rembert Browne, at The Standard High Line. An exclusive first look at TBS' new show Search Party, followed by a conversation with the show's creators Michael Showalter, Sarah-Violet Bliss, and Charles Rogers, along with castmembers Alia Shawkat, John Early, Meredith Hagner, and Brandon Michael Hall.

The weekend will kick off on Friday, May 20, with an exclusive opening-night party at the Top of the Standard, co-hosted by DIRECTV. Tickets costs will range from free events to $150 and are on sale to Citi ThankYou card members and went on sale to the general public on April 20, 2016 at www.vulturefestival.com.

ABC has picked up new drama Designated Survivor for the 2016-17 season. It is the night of the President's State of the Union address. Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland), the secretary of HUD, is the only cabinet member watching from another location. He has been chosen to be the Designated Survivor for the night, which ensures continuity of government in the unlikely event that a catastrophic attack on the capital kills everyone above him in the presidential line of succession. As he watches with his wife Alex (Natascha McElhone), a savvy pro bono attorney, the television signal suddenly cuts out and the Secret Service rush in. The Capitol Building has been blown up, the President and Cabinet members are dead, and Kirkman is about to become the President of the United States. He and Alex are taken to the White House immediately while Secret Service rush to get his 9 year-old daughter and search for his 16 year-old son, who is not where he said he would be. There is no time to process how their lives are about to change.

FBI Agent Hannah Wells (Maggie Q) is alerted immediately and runs out on a disastrous blind date. When she gets to the Capitol and starts the investigation, she makes the startling revelation that this attack might only be the beginning. Tom, now President Kirkman, meets with everyone left at top-level security clearance. Deputy Chief of Staff Aaron Shore helps Kirkman gain command over the panicked and chaotic room. Tensions rise when they receive word that Iran has deployed its Navy into the Strait of Hormuz. Hawkish General Cochrane, convinced that Iran is taking advantage of the attack to cut off America's source of oil, wants to bomb Iran immediately without substantiated evidence. President Kirkman refuses to head into military action without assessing the situation and meets with the Ambassador of Iran. While many doubt he has the strength and experience to take on these kinds of challenges, he proves himself surprisingly worthy. Speechwriter Seth Wright (Kal Penn), who Kirkman caught earlier trashing him for being a follower instead of a leader, will now have 45 minutes to write a formidable speech to launch his new presidency. With the Cabinet in shambles, the military pressing for action, the terrorists still at large, and the entire country searching for answers, Kirkman will struggle to prevent America, and his own family, from falling into chaos as he is thrust into one of the most difficult presidencies in history. Stay with us for continued updates, as the upfront schedules start next week!

Logo is bringing us even more laughs. First up, they are airing two episodes of Soap (episodes 4 and 8) on Sunday, Aug. 24 at 2:30pm & 3pm, following two episodes of Maude ("Maude's Dilemma" two-parter). Soap and Maude are airing on this date following Roseanne, Designing Women and Will & Grace. No other airings are scheduled for Soap on Logo, so perhaps it will be used here and there like Maude, which also is not airing regularly. However, Happy Endings will be joining the Logo schedule this Fall! The series was airing in repeats on sister network VH1, but now it will move to Logo and join other fellow former ABC comedy Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23. As for the scheduling, Happy Endings will launch with a Labor Day weekend marathon on Saturday, Aug. 30 from 12pm-8pm, Sunday, Aug. 31. from 12-6pm, and Monday, Sept. 1 from 12-5pm. Happy Endings will air in blocks regularly everyday like The Golden Girls, Will & Grace, Roseanne, Living Single, Designing Women, The Nanny, CSI and The X-Files. Keep it right here for any further updates on Logo, but as of now Happy Endings is the new addition for Fall 2014. No word on Soap yet other than the two airings this coming Sunday.

TV Land is bringing us Saturday Night Live all day on Saturday, Aug. 30 from 11am-11pm. It will be a star-studded day with episodes featuring guest hosts Jennifer Aniston, Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Melissa McCarthy, Betty White, Justin Timberlake and best of compilations of Jimmy Fallon, Alec Baldwin, and Amy Poehler. Music guests include Sting, David Bowie, Justin Bieber, Lady Antebellum, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z. SNL airs regularly on sister networks VH1 and VH1 Classic. No word just yet if TV Land has plans to make SNL a regular part of their line-up. Stay with us for continued updated. Live from TV Land, it's Saturday Night!

Spend the holidays with your favorite sitcom stars as Antenna TV, Tribune Broadcasting's multicast broadcast network, airs holiday episodes on BOTH Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Antenna TV, which airs on 83 affiliates across the U.S. reaching 67% of TV households, will be airing special holiday themed episodes beginning at 6:30am ET on Tuesday, December 24 and running through 4am ET on early Thursday, December 26. Programs include holiday episodes of: Father Knows Best, Hazel, Misted Ed, The Patty Duke Show, McHale's Navy, Green Acres, Bewitched, Diff'rent Strokes, Good Times, All in the Family, Maude, WKRP in Cincinnati, Barney Miller, The Burns and Allen Show, Jack Benny, Dennis the Menace, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Here Come the Brides, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Flying Nun, The Monkees, The Partridge Family, Sanford and Son, Barney Miller, Married...With Children and The Nanny.

Antenna TV will also air the original Yule Log uninterrupted from 5-9am ET on Christmas morning. We will give you the full episode-by-episode schedule for Christmas Eve and Day on Antenna TV soon on our message boards...so keep checking back!




"Oh buoy!" VH1 has acquired all 57 episodes of the critically- acclaimed sitcom Happy Endings from Sony Pictures Television. The VH1 deal marks the cable premiere for the single-camera ensemble comedy which originally aired on ABC for three seasons from April 2011 through May 2013. Happy Endings will begin airing on VH1 with a marathon of every episode beginning Tuesday, December 31 at 8p running through New Year's Day (Jan. 1) before settling into its new home on Wednesday nights from 7pm-9pm ET/PT beginning Wednesday, January 8, 2014. "Damn!"

In addition to airing the show on VH1, the network has licensed rights to showcase episodes of the series online via its TV Everywhere platforms and also on the new VH1 App. Happy Endings offers a fresh and funny take on modern friendship and what one urban family will do to stay friends after the perfect couple who brought them all together, breaks up on their wedding day. Forget who gets to keep the ring -- when a couple splits, the real question is, who gets to keep the friends? In this modern comedy, a couple's break-up will complicate all of their friends' lives and make everyone question their choices. When life throws you for a curve, hold on tight to the people you love. Every circle of friends has someone who's the gravitational center. For years, perfect couple Dave (Zachary Knighton) and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) drew their friends in and held them together. Now that they've split, does this group have the stuff to stay together? Or do Max (Adam Pally), Brad (Damon Wayans, Jr.), Jane (Eliza Coupe) and Penny (Casey Wilson) have to choose sides? Suddenly every event is a negotiation... like, who gets to go on the annual ski trip? There are a lot of big questions to be answered, but this group has been together so long, somehow, little by little, they'll figure out how to hold on, even though their center is split up. It helps that Dave and Alex have agreed to stay friends. But there will definitely be other complications down the road. This show isn't afraid to ask the embarrassing personal questions that inevitably arise in every long-term, close-knit group of friends.

On the next...Happy Endings:
By: Pavan

ABC's Friday night comedy starring an ensemble cast including Elisha Cuthbert airs Friday nights at 8:00pm & 8:30pm and we have just watched the two episodes that air tonight (April 12). In the first episode airing tonight, "She Got Game Night," Brad (Damon Wayans, Jr.) and Jane (Eliza Coupe) host a couples game night with Penny (Casey Rose Wilson), Pete (guest star Nick Zano), Max (Adam Pally) and Scotty (guest star Seth Morris) and the competitiveness gets a little out of hand, prompting Penny to make an unexpected move. Meanwhile Dave (Zachary Knighton) has a big decision to make on the career front, and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) tries to help but they end up at a psychic instead. In the second episode tonight, "The Storm Before the Calm," Penny insists that she's fine after her breakup with Pete, but the gang begin to wonder when she writes a play entitled "Black Plague: A Love Story" and asks Derrick (guest star Stephen Guarino) and his theater group to stage it. They brace for "drama" in more ways than one. Meanwhile a marketing group asks Alex and Max to be tastemakers, but is it a scam?

Sup, suckas. The first airing tonight is classic (say classic how they say it on the show) Happy Endings. It's a lot of fun, has laughs, some touching moments and a shocker. Each character does what we usually expect from each one and that's a good thing because all of them are unique and so cool. It's what we expect each episode and that's what makes this show so fun. The centerpiece of the episode is a couples game night that Brad & Jane host and only couples are invited. Newly engaged coupled Penny and Pete are in, while Max wants in as well and he does what Max would usually do, find a random person...classic Max. Dave and Alex are also on the way to the game night but they get distracted at a tarot reader place because Dave, as usual, can't make a decision on whether keeping his food truck or going into the actual restaurant business. The smarter than she is given credit for Alex, helps him more than the psychic. The game night is so fun and works well and the couple to beat, Brad & Jane, bring in most of the laughs. Max and random guy Scotty aren't bad either, while Penny and her fiance Pete make such a cute couple, suh kewt! But what will happen at game night that might make their relationship go south? "Oh buoy." You'll have to tune in tonight, so don't give me that Alex blank face.



In the very next episode, we continue where we left off in the Penny and Pete storyline. But don't expect an emotional episode or anything because it still brings the funny. Penny deals with the aftermath her own way...by writing a play. The main character in the play is Clete. Now who does that rhyme with? Is she dealing with what happened in her own way? The other storyline is a guerrilla marketing group recruiting Alex and Max at Rosalita's (the bar). These two work well with each other like usual. It's a hilarious storyline because I think Alex and Max actually know they're getting scammed. And Jane wants in. Elisa Cuthbert (Alex) has the best facial expressions I have ever seen on television (see image). Suh kewt! So many cool references are made in this episode, like the show usually does. 3rd Rock from the Sun, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Aziz Ansari, Taye Diggs, Practice Practice, Becker, etc. The main draw of the episode is the play, of course, but I think the Alex, Max and Jane storyline steals the episode. It's another good episode, maybe not as good as the previous one, but very solid. Let's hope we get to have more of this show after this season. Happy Endings is one of the best comedies on TV and it needs to continue. Ir's smart, funny, and easy to like. Each character is ah-mazing. #SaveHappyEndings. First episode: B+, Second episode: B


It's Friday, so it is time for "Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows" for the coming week. This is where we list what sitcom stars are appearing on talk shows for the coming week, the stars are both current and past sitcom stars, so this is for all sitcom fans of all eras!
For the week of April 15-19, 2013, we have many current sitcom stars and past sitcom stars on TV talk shows! All times listed are Eastern. So get your DVR's (or whatever you use) ready! Ready? Here is all what you need to know for the coming week!

Monday, April 15, 2013

• Steve Carell (The Office) - Watch Steve on a repeat of The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS.
• Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) - Jerry appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35pm on NBC.
• Bob Saget (How I Met Your Mother/Full House) - Bob is a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
• Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation) - Rob visits The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 12:37am on CBS.
• Hilary Duff (Lizzie McGuire) - Hilary stops by The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check listings.
• D.L. Hughley (The Hughleys) - D.L. and Dancing with the Stars partner Cheryl Burke are guests on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check listings.
• Cheryl Hines (Suburgatory/Curb Your Enthusiasm) - Cheryl gives a sneak peek at the season finale of ABC's hit show, Suburgatory and reveals if Curb Your Enthusiasm will ever return to HBO on The Wendy Williams Show at 12am on BET or on your local stations. The show repeats on Friday.
• Brooke Shields (Suddenly Susan) - Brooke guest co-hosts The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

• Selma Blair (Anger Management) - Catch Selma on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 12:37am on CBS.
• Peter Facinelli (Nurse Jackie) - Peter guest co-hosts LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, so check your listings.
• Andy Dick (Less Than Perfect/NewsRadio) - Andy opens up about how his drinking affected his family and his current sobriety on Marie at 12pm on Hallmark Channel.
• Marlon Wayans (The Wayans Bros.) - Marlon appears on a repeat of The Jeff Probst Show, so check your local listings.
• Yvette Nicole Brown (Community) - Yvette is a guest on a repeat of The Jeff Probst Show, so check your local listings.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

• Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place) - Watch Selena on a repeat of The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS.
• Breckin Meyer (Married to the Kellys/Inside Schwartz) - Breckin drops by The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 12:37am on CBS.
• Steve Carell (The Office) - Steve appears on a repeat of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 12:37am on NBC.
• Drew Carey (The Drew Carey Show/The Good Life) - Drew brings classic games on a repeat of The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
• Brad Garrett (How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)/'Til Death/Everybody Loves Raymond) - Brad stops by LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, so check your listings. He will also be on Joy Behar: Say Anything! at 9pm on Current.
• Mark Feuerstein (Good Morning, Miami) - Mark guest co-hosts LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, so check your listings.
• Chris Rock (Everybody Hates Chris), David Spade (Rules of Engagement/8 Simple Rules) and Kevin James (The King of Queens) - The cast of Grown Ups 2 are guests on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check listings.
• Sofia Vergara (Modern Family/The Knights of Prosperity/Hot Properties) - Tune in to see Sofia on ABC's Good Morning America between 7-9am.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

• Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) - Watch Nick on a repeat of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35pm on NBC.
• Tracy Morgan (30 Rock/The Tracy Morgan Show) - Tracy is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 12:37am on NBC.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine/Seinfeld) - Julia is part of the guest panel on Chelsea Lately on E! at 11pm.
• Jennifer Aniston (Friends/Muddling Through/Molloy) - Jennifer appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check listings.
• Kym Whitley (Sparks/My Brother and Me) - Kym visits The Wendy Williams Show at 12am on BET or on your local stations.
• Sofia Vergara (Modern Family/The Knights of Prosperity/Hot Properties) - Sofia drops by The Dr. Oz Show, so check your local listings.
• Jenna Fischer (The Office) - Jenna talks about motherhood on a repeat of The Jeff Probst Show, so check your local listings.
• Marlon Wayans (The Wayans Bros.) - Marlon guest co-hosts a repeat of Anderson Live, so check your local listings.
• Brad Garrett (How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)/'Til Death/Everybody Loves Raymond) - Brad joins the Chew Crew on The Chew on ABC at 1pm ET/12pm PT/CT.

Friday, April 19, 2013

• Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory) - Catch Melissa on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 12:37am on CBS.
• Lily Tomlin (Malibu Country) - Lily appears on a repeat of The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
• Angela Kinsey (The Office) - Angela is a guest on a repeat of The Jeff Probst Show, so check your local listings.
• Elizabeth Perkins (How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)) - Tune in to see Elizabeth on a repeat of The Jeff Probst Show, so check your local listings.
• D.L. Hughley (The Hughleys) - D.L. guest co-hosts a repeat of Anderson Live, so check your local listings.

Leave us comments on our message board or Tweet/Facebook us to let us know what you think of this Friday feature! We do listen!

What's your favorite TV comedy right now? The polls are open! TV Guide Magazine is turning the power over to the readers, inviting them to cast their vote for which shows they would like to see featured on the cover. The competition is heating up, and by logging onto TV Guide Magazine's Facebook page, fans can vote as many times as they would like help their favorite show come out ahead. Vote now for your favorite comedy, and come back every day this week to check for new categories (2 new ones revealed each day). The winners of the 4th annual Fan Favorite Poll will be revealed on the cover of TV Guide Magazine's April 22-29 double issue, available on newsstands April 25. The polls close on Monday, March 11 at noon ET. Fans can help their favorite show land on the cover of TV's #1 publication by logging onto Facebook, "Liking" TV Guide Magazine, and voting for their favorite show!

Selected by TV Guide Magazine's Editors, the 2012 Fan Favorite nominees in the "Favorite Comedy" category are 2 Broke Girls, Community, Cougar Town, Girls, Glee, Happy Endings, Modern Family, New Girl, The Big Bang Theory, and The Middle. Who will you choose? You can make a difference. The SitcomsOnline pick for Favorite Comedy goes to Modern Family (though 2-3 others are tempting, too). Go and vote and your favorite comedy could make the cover!



On the next...Raising Hope:
By: Todd

Fox's Tuesday sitcom starring Martha Plimpton airs Tuesday nights at 8:00pm & 8:30pm and we have just watched the episode that airs tonight (Feb. 26) at 8:30pm. Hilary Duff guest stars! In the episode airing tonight, "The Old Girl," Sabrina (Shannon Woodward) is excited to introduce her new friend, Rachel (guest star Hilary Duff), to the family, but Virginia (Martha Plimpton) and Burt (Garret Dillahunt) are shocked when she turns out to be Jimmy's (Lucas Neff) ex-girlfriend who broke his heart as a teenager.

After Hope is bitten by a cow at the Natesville petting zoo, they receive 500 pounds of beef in order to avoid a messy lawsuit. The family has nothing but meat for the next week. Sabrina shows them a photo of her new friend, Rachel. Everybody is shocked to see that she is Jimmy's ex-girlfriend. Jimmy had met her at college when he was 18. They meet every single weekend, but the relationship is eventually ended by Rachel. Jimmy, Virginia and Burt later sing Ain't No Sunshine in a breakup video montage. Sabrina invites Rachel over for dinner. Jimmy reads a letter that he had written to Rachel seven years ago. Rachel tells him that Virginia and Burt are the whole reason they broke up. In flashback scenes, a young Jimmy is shown by rejected by a girl at a grocery store. Young Jimmy also sings Ain't No Sunshine. Many years later and in more flashback scenes, Virginia and Burt go to the college to meet Rachel. They don't want to see Jimmy get his heart broken again, so they try to get Richard interested in Rachel. Richard, however, has his sights set on somebody else. Will Rachel stay for the dinner or will she go? Tune in to find out.

It's an all-new hour of Raising Hope tonight. Only the second episode was available for review. Hilary Duff hasn't appeared in any episodic series in the last few years, so it's nice to see her return to television with this funny guest appearance. This episode is Virginia and Burt centric and offers plenty of flashback scenes. It's always fun to see the scenes when Virginia and Burt were younger and even more insane. Trace Garcia, creator Greg Garcia's son, does a fine job as the five-year-old Jimmy and even sings like the adult Jimmy. I liked how they set up the present day and flashback breakup montages the same way. Their flashback scenes are always very creative. It's a pretty enjoyable episode overall. The highlights are the Virginia and Burt flashback scenes at the college and the Ain't No Sunshine renditions. I'm looking forward to the My Name Is Earl reunion with Jason Lee, Jaime Pressly, Ethan Suplee, Nadine Velazquez and Eddie Steeples tonight in the first episode ("Making the Band") airing at 8:00pm. That would be my pick of the night. B



On the next...The Mindy Project:
By: Skees

Fox's Tuesday night comedy starring Mindy Kaling airs Tuesday nights at 9:30pm immediately following New Girl and we have just watched the next episode that airs tonight (Feb. 26). Seth Rogen guest stars!. In the episode airing tonight, "The One That Got Away," Mindy (Mindy Kaling) reunites with her "first kiss," Sam (guest star Seth Rogen) and the two reminisce about their time at Jewish summer camp, and soon rekindle the sparks of their teen romance.

Mindy has reunited with an old flame once again (surprise?) when she meets up with Sam (played by guest star Seth Rogen). Unlike many of her old flames, though, Sam goes pretty far back... all the way back to when Mindy was at Jewish summer camp (don't ask). It was at this summer camp where Mindy first met Sam and had her first kiss. Of course, once summer was over, she was headed back home and Sam was out of her life. That is, until Sam returns home from his duty in the Army (wearing an Army t-shirt that Mindy is convinced that he picked up at hipster-chic Urban Outfitters) and meets up with Mindy. Once she finds out that Sam is about to be deployed again, she becomes a bit reluctant to attempt to rekindle the relationship, but as she begins to fall for him once again, she considers doing whatever it takes to keep him from leaving her life... literally anything.


Once again, this is yet another predictable episode about Mindy falling in love... again. These episodes are good once in a while, but the whole theme just continues to wear a bit thin in my opinion. I enjoyed seeing Rogen make an appearance in the episode, but much like other guest stars who've appeared in previous episodes, it seems like a generic script was already written for anybody without actually using Rogen's talents and creating a character around him. I have been growing to like this series, but too many of these "old boyfriend back in Mindy's life" stories can wear thin very quickly. Regardless, though, this wasn't a bad story, and I loved the ploy that Mindy tried to undertake to keep this boyfriend around... I'd just rather these episodes less often, and also to see big-name male guest stars be somebody other than a love-interest for Mindy. B-

ABC has announced midseason scheduling moves, with Celebrity Wife Swap, the reality series that shines a light on how controversial celebrities really live their lives, returning on Tuesday, February 26 at 8:00pm ET with all-new episodes, and competitive cooking show The Taste moving back an hour to 9:00pm, starting that same night. And beginning Friday, March 29, critically acclaimed comedy Happy Endings will move to a new night and time on Friday nights, airing back-to-back original episodes at 8:00pm & 8:30pm, ET. The Friday night comedy block of Last Man Standing and Malibu Country will have aired their season finales the week prior to Happy Endings taking over that timeslot on March 22, after both wrap up their 18 episode orders. The comedy will be the lead-in to Friday's #1 show Shark Tank at 9pm. ABC had planned to launch Primetime Nightline in April at 9pm, but that might be pushed back to May or early summer.

Happy Endings is scheduled to air for five straight Fridays to fulfill the ten episodes that are left to air this season, so the season finale will likely be on April 26. The sitcom last aired on Tuesday, Jan. 29 from 9-10pm, as it was preempted last week (Feb. 5) for a special The Bachelor and this week for the State of the Union Address. On Feb. 19 The Bachelor: Sean Tells All special will air before Celebrity Wife Swap takes over on Feb. 26. ABC has only scheduled three Celebrity Wife Swap episodes for now (Feb. 26-March 12). The first episode features the unlikeliest of moms swapping lives -- Splash contestant and Playmate Kendra Wilkinson and reality super mom Kate Gosselin of Kate Plus Eight fame (and both former Dancing with the Stars contestants). The 3 episodes will keep the timeslot warm for Splash when it premieres on March 19, while The Taste will wrap up on March 12 at 9pm. No word on what ABC will air at 9pm on Tuesday, March 19 yet, but they could expand the Splash premiere to two-hours, as Dancing with the Stars: The Results will not launch until the following week on March 26. Stay tuned for the casting announcement for Dancing on Feb. 26 during Good Morning America. And among the stars on Splash, we have former sitcom stars Nicole Eggert and Keshia Knight Pulliam, along with TV stars Drake Bell and Louie Anderson, and Chuy Bravo, Ndamukong Suh, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rory Bushfield, Katherine Webb and Kendra Wilkinson rounding out the cast.

Moving on, if you had one wish, what would it be? This President's Day, anything can happen – with a little help from a certain genie. WLNY-TV 10/55 in New York is rounding up another classic TV show for a holiday. This time the holiday is President's Day and WLNY-TV 10-55 is making all your wishes come true with an I Dream Of Jeannie marathon. I Dream of Jeannie, starring Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, will air for a full-day marathon event on Monday, February 18, 2013 from 9am-9pm. Episode information is still not available. WLNY has aired marathons of Taxi, The Odd Couple, The Munsters, Andy Griffith Show, and I Love Lucy on holidays already since last July.

Rescued from a bottle (and a deserted island) by a U.S. astronaut, a scantily clad genie named Jeannie becomes his slave and eventually falls in love with him. But unlike most genie stories, there are no three wishes rule - so Jeannie uses her magic all the time, often without talking to her rescuer about it first.

Late on Friday, ABC quietly pulled the next all-new episode of Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 scheduled to air Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 9:30pm. Instead, ABC has opted to air a second all-new episode of Happy Endings, which is faring a bit better in the ratings. Happy Endings will be all-new and back-to-back on that night (yeah buoy!). After that, ABC already had both series preempted for Tuesday, Feb. 5 and Tuesday, Feb. 12, as on Feb. 5 they have a two-hour special for The Bachelor and on Feb. 12 President Obama has his annual State of the Union Address live at 9pm ET (ABC will air an encore of Modern Family that night at 10:30pm following the address). And if you're wondering, this Tuesday (Jan. 22) ABC has the two-hour premiere of The Taste from 8-10pm, which was already scheduled to preempt the comedies.

So anyway, after Jan. 29, the next possible date the Tuesday ABC comedies could return is Tuesday, Feb. 19. But we don't think Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 will return. Why? Well, after the two Jan. 29 episodes of Happy Endings air, the comedy would have 10 episodes left for the rest of the season. And low and behold, airing between Feb. 19 to March 19 (which is the last possible date for them to air, since Dancing with the Stars returns the next week) is 5 weeks. Do a little math and you can place all 10 remaining episodes of Happy Endings during those five weeks and double pump them back-to-back from 9-10pm. Hence, this means Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 wouldn't be on the Tuesday line-up and is pulled. While we love both comedies, frankly Happy Endings is doing better in the ratings and has more of an upside (syndication for one). That's our speculation, but you heard it here first that Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 is likely pulled on Tuesdays. If that is the case, then the sitcom has eight episodes left to air, as the series had a 13 episode order this season, plus the six remaining first season episode for a total of 19 this season (and only 11 have aired so far). Stay with us for further updates and we hope we get to see these remaining episodes of Don't Trust the B----, trust me!

FX's Thursdays comedies returned last week to some good numbers! Competing against tough competition on broadcast and cable, Anger Management's "Back-90" episode order got off to a fine start. The 9PM telecast notched 903,000 Adults 18-49 and 1.82 million total viewers, while the 9:30PM telecast increased +10% in Adults 18-49 to 994,000 while garnering 1.66 million total viewers. In addition, the season 4 premiere of Archer at 10PM delivered stellar results, repping the series' most-watched telecast ever in Adults and Men 18-49 (1.28 Million and 991,000, respectively) and Adults and Men 18-34 (882,000 and 712,000, respectively) and ranking as the #1 most-watched entertainment program last night in basic cable among both M18-49 and M18-34. Additionally, Archer ranked #1 in its time period outright [inclusive of broadcast] in both M18-49 and M18-34. Among Total Viewers (1.61 million), Archer was its second most-watched telecast ever behind only the series premiere [which had the b'cast premiere of The Simpsons Movie as its lead-in]. Then, the series premiere episode of the critically acclaimed comedy Legit at 10:30PM delivered 650,000 Total Viewers, 461,000 Adults 18-49, and 351,000 Men 18-49. The first run plus its encore airing (12:30 AM) combined to deliver 861,000 Total Viewers and 591,000 Adults 18-49.

And in late night, the return of Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell at 11:00PM outdelivered its most recent run average (7 episode which ended in mid-December) by +27% and repped the 4th most-watched telecast in Adults 18-49 out of the 14 telecasts to date. It delivered 331,000 Total Viewers and 261,000 Adults 18-49. Totally Biased climbed +27% over its Season 1B average in Adults 18-49 (10/11-11/29/12) in P18-49 (246,000 vs. 193,000), driven by a +50% jump in Men 18-49.